On Fridays, Sasuke worked the snack bar at the local park. He was required to show up, serve all the stupid kids their deep-fried crap, then cook some more over a fryer in the blistering summer heat. Once again, a hairnet was necessary, but it was hidden under the even stupider red and white striped cap that matched his uniform. At no point had he been told he needed to be happy about this, or interact with anyone – it was the cashier who dealt with customers – so he usually went about his business, cooking crap with more crap then serving it up like the piece of crap it was. On a regular day, he could tend to his business without interruption, or even opening his mouth.

But on this day, Naruto came.

Naruto hadn't actually meant to run into Sasuke this time. After having his nose broken he was feeling a little sour, and decided it was best to give Sasuke some space. Besides, it was tough being turned down four days in a row. He needed a bit of a break.

So, that morning, he hadn't stalked Sasuke to find out where he'd be working during the day; instead Naruto spent his time trying to find other ways to entertain himself. The problem was, without Sasuke, his life seemed terribly bleak. He tried playing card games but his clones always cheated, and then he'd spent over an hour simply lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, thinking about Sasuke and how much he wanted to kiss him. In order to take his mind off things, he figured he might as well get some air, and ended up at the park. Imagine his surprise when the object of his affections appeared like an angel, covered in sweat and grease at the snack bar.

Naruto had meant to give Sasuke some space, but he knew fate when he saw it.

As Sasuke lowered the next batch of fried goodness into its spluttering oil, he found himself face-to-face with none other than Naruto, who had somehow found leverage enough to be looking in from a small window. Not only did his nose look horrible, the purplish bruises that plagued the flesh in the middle of his face appeared to spread wider the longer he stared at it. Sasuke took one look at his shit-eating grin and slammed the window shut.

"OW!" he screamed, hands flying to his freshly wounded nose. The shadow clone below him shuddered at the sudden imbalance of weight and poofed away, and the real Naruto fell into the stacked crates below. The wood cracked in each one and he fell straight through to the grass underneath, his knees next to his ears and legs flailing in the air.

His second attempt to greet Sasuke went much smoother. He stood in line with the rest of the townsfolk, mostly children. The kid in front of him kept looking back at Naruto and flipping him the bird (he was sure he hadn't done a thing to deserve it, either) and the kid behind was jumping on the back of his shoes and laughing. Naruto by no means hated children, but at the moment, he wished Sasuke would appreciate the things he went through just to garner his attention.

Naruto stood in line for a total of fifteen minutes, but even though Sasuke had noticed from the beginning, he went out of his way to avoid Naruto's gaze and pretended he couldn't see him waving and jumping up and down like a man possessed.

Sasuke served up some fries and a hotdog to the next kid in line, painfully aware that Naruto was just about to order. He had a bad feeling. It couldn't just be as simple as ordering when it came to Naruto. Sasuke suspected he had something planned out, like maybe he was going to send in a clone to pretend to rob the place so he could beat it up and seem like a hero and maybe Sasuke would go out with him. He didn't know exactly what, he just knew Naruto had sat in the dark and planned how this was going to go. The only thing Sasuke could do now was wait it out and stick to his resolve.

The man he worked with let out a loud yelp. Sasuke turned to see his entire front covered in mustard, in one hand a plain hotdog and in the other a condiment bottle where the loose lid had exploded onto him. A pair of young kids were snickering at him and Sasuke had no doubt this was their doing.

The man – Sasuke hadn't cared to learn his name – looked at him like he was sure Sasuke might lash out any moment.

"Handle the customers while I go wash up," he ordered. The man had a lot of guts talking to Sasuke like that. "Don't get into any trouble, or I'll know. Got it, Uchiha?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and pushed past him, surveying the cash register like it had grown six legs. He wasn't sure exactly how it worked, but Sasuke could never admit to such a thing. Working a cash register was very simple, he assumed, and considering the fact he'd been working here every Friday for three months he probably should know a thing or two about it by now.

Sasuke's expression remained neutral as Naruto stepped up to the counter, that same ridiculously wide grin threatening to combust his cheeks. Naruto couldn't believe his luck. Fate was obviously trying to get a point across today.

"Hello, Sasukeh. Nice hat." This was how Naruto liked to flirt.

"Your nose is purple and deformed." He liked to think Sasuke was flirting back.

"Yeah well your face is deformed!"

"What do you want already."

"A date would be nice," he said casually.

"You do realise your persistence is anything but flattering."

"Would you like me to flatter you, Sasuke?"

"No."

"You have beautiful eyes," he said.

"Thanks, I stole them from my brother's corpse," said Sasuke. Naruto made a face. "Just order something or get lost."

"Hmm…" Naruto huffed and stroked his chin, examining the menu above Sasuke's head.

"You've been standing in line for almost twenty minutes and you haven't even thought about what you're going to order?"

"Well I was a bit distracted." Naruto gave Sasuke that ridiculously sappy look again, and strangely, Sasuke found that he had to turn away.

"Whatever," he said, voice softer than he'd intended. "Are you going to buy something?"

Naruto rubbed his hands together, looking over the menu again. "Yep, I'm thinking I'll have large waffle fries, two corndogs except I want one of them in a bun—"

"You mean a hotdog?" Sasuke deadpanned.

"—twelve potato gems and onion rings, three hash browns—"

"Hash browns are only available before 11am."

"—some of those fish ringlets—"

"We don't sell calamari here."

"—a double cheeseburger minus pickles, and a large chocolate thick shake."

Sasuke sighed, adding up the cost on his notepad. "That's 175 ryou, and most likely a heart attack in the near future."

Naruto fished for his wallet, lifting out one of his pockets, then another, then the two back ones. He looked up at Sasuke with a hand full of lint and a sheepish grin, his cheeks reddening.

"Uh, well this trip was kind of impulsive you see, so I didn't actually bring my wallet with me…"

Naruto chuckled, ignoring the groans from people behind him. Sasuke closed his eyes and they didn't open for a while. Naruto felt his stomach rumble and thought it would be best for him to just leave, get his wallet from home, and go to Ichiraku instead of embarrassing himself in front of Sasuke like this any longer. Looks like it hadn't been fate after all.

Just as he was going to run off, the caching of the cash register caught him by surprise, and he looked up to see Sasuke putting some money in for him.

Blinking, Naruto said, "Hey, you don't have to do that—"

"It's fine."

Sasuke didn't meet his gaze, tearing the order off and getting to work. Naruto couldn't help the warm and fuzzy feelings and ransacked his stomach. He didn't say another word, just watched as Sasuke lowered all the food into its greasetrap and prepared it with the same grace he did everything else. Naruto hummed his happy tune.

"Stop humming."

Naruto stopped humming, instead rattling his fingers on his pants and bobbing his head back and forth, still staring at every movement Sasuke made. Sasuke handed him the burger and hotdog, their hands touching for the briefest of moments, before turning back. Naruto stared at the spot on his hand where Sasuke's fingers had brushed and wished he could feel that tingly feeling all over him.

The onion rings came next, then the potato gems and fries, and finally, the corndog and shake. Sasuke wiped the film of grease that made his hands slick on his apron before handing it to Naruto. When their fingers brushed for the fourth time, Naruto held on a little longer, and their eyes met. Naruto was surprised to see Sasuke wasn't scowling at him like he usually was. His grin grew wider.

"So, are you busy la—"

"No."

Naruto blinked. "Hey, don't cut me off! And wait, does that mean you're not busy later, or—"

"It means no." He paused, head shaking faintly. "I just can't stop staring at your nose, it's hideous."

Naruto frowned, ducking his head self-consciously. "It's your fault."

"Hey," said the real cashier as he emerged from the back door, his apron slightly damp and uncomfortable-looking as it clung to his protruding stomach, "move the line along, Uchiha."

Sasuke pulled his hand away, eyes lingering for the longest three seconds of Naruto's life, because there was something in that look that had never been there before. Sasuke's lips were quirked in the smallest smile. It was enough to set the tingliness all over his skin; it felt just as good as he imagined it would. Naruto bundled the food in his arms and skipped away, leaving Sasuke standing there with a doggy bag in his outstretched hand, bewildered because he'd expected this encounter to be much worse.

Naruto set everything down on one of the park benches and squealed to himself in delight. Not wanting to waste Sasuke's money, he ate every last morsel without hindrance. He was wondering why people kept staring at him before he realised he had been kicking his legs under his seat, humming and chewing with his mouth open for the past ten minutes. He tried to tone down the happiness a bit, but he couldn't help it, because Naruto was in love and everybody knows love is the one thing you can't help or cure. Despite being turned down again today, Naruto felt like the past week hadn't been a waste after all. He'd finally made a bit of progress.

When Sasuke got off work three hours later, his fingers were red from slaving over the fryer all day. He felt dirty and slick with grease, and wanted nothing more than to go back to his apartment and jump in the bath for an hour or two, maybe read a book. Sasuke didn't work on weekends unless he was called off for an emergency mission, since he wasn't an official member of the shinobi roster. He blew on his fingers then tucked them under his arms, heading down the dimly lit pathway, feet crunching in gravel. Earlier that day, he'd decided not to bring a jacket, assuming the summer heat would render it unnecessary. He'd neglected to take the chill of the evening into account. Sasuke rubbed his hands together a few more times and sucked it up. It was quiet, especially in contrast to the screams of children that plagued the park during the day. He liked it when it was quiet.

Unfortunately for Sasuke, it was never quiet for long.

"SASUKEH!"

Something throttled him from behind, two strong arms wrapping around his throat in a tight embrace. Sasuke made a surprised phlegmy noise that sounded something like 'ackackeh' and flung the person over his shoulder and into the ground, palming a kunai from seemingly nowhere and holding it to Naruto's throat.

Eyes wide and sharingan flaring, Naruto looked up at Sasuke, unperturbed. "Calm down, it's just me!"

"Oh my fucking god, I have killed men who have come at me from behind like that before so don't think I won't kill you!"

"Sorry, sorry." Naruto's hand wrestled to loosen Sasuke's hold, who stood to his feet and shoved the kunai back into god-knows-where, and scurried up from the ground to match Sasuke's quickening pace. "Hey, where you going?"

"Home," he replied crisply. "Customarily, one goes home when the day comes to a close."

Naruto laughed. "Who says today is over? It's Friday night, there are heaps of places we could go, like a nightclub, or a bar, or... okay well judging by the look you're giving me, I can guess you're not a party kinda guy which I suppose is to be expected of someone like you, but there are still lots of things we can do together."

Sasuke stopped walking. Naruto turned to look at him, staring thoughtfully at the ground, his eyebrows laced in thought.

After what felt like forever, (Naruto didn't want to say anything because of the tense look on his face), "…I don't like you," Sasuke said.

Even though deep down Naruto knew at some point Sasuke would have to say something like this to him, he could feel the wind knocked from his lungs and every inch of him somehow felt heavy, like he'd just woken up from a whole day of intensive training. He felt sore. It wasn't just physically, but, inside.

"Not like that, I mean," Sasuke continued, but he didn't really have to say it. Naruto knew what he meant.

Naruto hadn't felt like crying in a long time. Not since Jiraiya died, in fact. It seemed silly to cry over something like this, but here he was, biting his lip and blinking away the stinging in his eyes.

"I know," he managed thickly. Neither of them looked at each other, neither of them moved.

He could see, from the corner of his eye, that Sasuke's hand balled into a fist. He brought the hands together and dug a fingernail into his palms. Naruto wasn't sure what to make of it. He'd never seen Sasuke act this way, like he was nervous.

"It's just…!" He turned wildly to face Naruto, the strangest mixture of emotions he couldn't read swirling in his eyes. "You're – Naruto!"

He blinked. "I – I know?"

Sasuke shook his head. There was vulnerability in his eyes, but he held himself like he always did.

"You're really! …Nice… and… and I'm not, though. That's not even it, it's more… my clan… they're very traditional… I just think about, if they were watching, they'd be… also you can't have kids… not you specifically, like… men can't, together… and I need to – have kids I mean." He paused. "It's more… complicated. Than not liking you. If it wasn't for everything else, I'd… how can I not? You're difficult to ignore, difficult to… I mean you were always talking about our bond, and I know I acted like… but I could. It was more than that. Does that… make sense?"

"Uhh…" Naruto could see Sasuke was very distressed, but for the life of him didn't understand why. "Could you maybe just repeat some of that?"

Sasuke deflated, looking away. "N… never mind…"

Hands in pockets, Sasuke started to walk away again. He looked normal as well. Just as suddenly as he'd been spluttering with his eyes so full of emotion, he was back to his regular self, scowling with an air of superiority that had somehow always been part of Naruto's attraction to him.

"Hey, wait," Naruto called softly. Sasuke didn't stop walking. "Hey bastard wait!" He didn't. "God, sometimes, Sasuke you dumb prick…"

Naruto ran up behind him, tugging on Sasuke's sleeve. Sasuke didn't look at him, but he did stop, so that was something. Instead, he focused an intense glare on one of the street lamps, his arms folded.

"What," he said.

Moody as usual, Naruto thought. "Hey, look, it's okay… that you don't like me."

Naruto grimaced, and Sasuke did notice. His eyes flickered away from the street lamp, glaring much less intently.

"I mean, I get it, you can't help who you like." Naruto swallowed, briefly closing his eyes. When he opened them again, they were steely with determination. "But the same goes for me. I can't help that I like you, and the thing is, you're also my best friend, so I want to spend time with you. What I'm saying is, for now I'd be willing to just, you know, hang out. As friends."

Sasuke looked a bit taken aback, his arms unfolding and landing in his pockets. "You mean like we used to?"

"Eh, for now," Naruto said, eyes gleaming with the hints of a mischievous smile. Sasuke shook his head and turned away – he didn't want Naruto to see that he was smiling, too. "Deal? Like we used to?"

Naruto held out his hand. Sasuke let his smile fall before shaking it in turn. "Like we used to," he agreed.

"Yay!" Naruto cheered, wrapping his arms around Sasuke's shoulders. He groaned and pushed Naruto off, muttering something about personal space. The two continued walking in the darkness of the empty park, only now they walked much slower.

"And… maybe later, we can hang out like Madara and Hashirama used to, if you catch my drift—"

Sasuke kicked him in the stomach and walked away.

The End.

-x-

I was hesitant to upload this chapter, but only because it's the last one. This was fun. Also, I have no idea how much a ryou is in comparison to a dollar, considering people don't really deal in gold anymore (well, not where I come from), so just assume that the amounts I said are correct and be on your way. Sorry they didn't screw each other crazy at the end like I'm sure you all thought they would, or at least kiss. No I'm not. My story. Bye bye. xo